From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A unibrow or monobrow, medically known as a synophrys, refers to a "confluence of eyebrows"; i.e. the presence of abundant hair between the eyebrows, so that they seem to converge to form one long eyebrow.

The words unibrow and monobrow are in the Oxford English Dictionary, and unibrow was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 2006. Medical dictionaries, such as Dorland's Medical Dictionary, contain the word synophrys.

In Western perception, a unibrow may make a person seem unattractive, so much so that the unibrow has become something of a cliché in fiction, especially with cartoon characters (see below).

Among Western women, the region between the brows is often plucked, waxed, shaved, or treated with electrolysis or other forms of depilation. Unibrow separation is often the only form of eyebrow grooming (a stereotypically feminine behavior) among men. However, in some non-Western cultures this facial hair does not have a stigma, and may even be seen as a sign of feminine beauty, as in Caucasus or in Iran, where connected eyebrows are a sign of virginity and being unmarried.[1]

The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo often depicted herself with an exaggerated unibrow and a thin moustache, which was seen as unconventional and purposely unflattering by Western audiences.

There have apparently been no serious scientific studies of the unibrow in culture or whether certain ethnic groups are more prone to developing a unibrow or not (or less likely to pluck them or not).

Medically, some cephalic disorders, particularly Cornelia de Lange syndrome, could be associated with synophrys. However, the vast majority of persons with a unibrow have no such condition, and the connection to developmental disabilities is wildly exaggerated in the popular imagination.

Unibrows have been the subject of various misconceptions and superstitions. Victorian criminologist Cesare Lombroso identified unibrows as a sign of criminality [2] (later discredited). In earlier times they were associated with werewolves; in the 1984 fantasy film The Company of Wolves, the grandmother (played by Angela Lansbury) comments to her granddaughter:

"Beware of windfallen apples and of men whose eyebrows meet" (she is later eaten by the werewolf).

Russian Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov has a prominent unibrow.

• Angie Harmon, actress - "Being half Greek and half American Indian, I have the unibrow. So once I started working on them, I really did see a change. You create another kind of beauty." [3]^{[dead link – history]}
• Salma Hayek, actress - "Hayek said she misses the days when she had one eyebrow because it would have come in handy for the movie in which she plays the legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, notorious for her thick, connecting eyebrow. (September 2002)" [4]
• Jack Osbourne of reality television show The Osbournes had his unibrow waxed off in one episode.[5]
• Bill Berry of R.E.M.

• Beard
• Bearded woman
• Eyebrow
• Facial hair
• Hirsutism
• Mustache
• Sideburns

• Monobrow.com